His candor surprises me.
But then again, if Remus is here, then he already knows.
I notice Remus clench his jaw ever so slightly at the last part of what Romulus just said.
He didn’t seem to like the reference to me being one of them. But still, he keeps the friendly smile on his face and keeps up the act.
His pack is huge and greatly outnumbers us, even with Vivian’s pack added to Romulus’. To mine. Ours, as it soon will be.
If they came here to try to fight and stop my turning, they will win. There’s no way we can defend ourselves for long against this many shifters, no matter how str
ong Romulus and the boys are.
As everyone remains still in the tense moment, I suddenly wonder if all of this is too much for me to ask of the boys. My recklessness in wanting to plunge head-first into being turned will cause them consequences that I hadn’t even thought of. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but now I have a nagging suspicion that I have no actual idea at all.
All my preparations, my reading, my worries … what if it really wasn’t enough?
This very moment might end up costing all of us our lives and they did it all for me. I don’t trust Remus or his pack and I was hoping that Romulus and the boys wouldn’t either. But it seems that I keep being wrong about many things.
Too many things.
“You’re really willing to put the past behind us and to move forward in peace?” Romulus asks. “After everything?”
This time there’s a slight quaver to his voice that wasn’t there before. He’s eying his brother differently now.
No, don’t be so foolish, I think to myself. I catch Lydia’s glance from the corner of my eye, and I can tell that she is thinking the same thing as I am.
This is all too conveniently timed. There’s no remorse on Remus’ face. No repentance.
“And you are going to accept Sabrina as being a part of my pack and not some abomination to be hunted?” Romulus continues. He must be able to sense our unease, even without Lydia’s gift. But he must want this badly.
Too badly, I realize, as I watch Romulus’ carefully curated guard drop after all this time.
“Yes,” Remus says. The word slides off his tongue too easily as if he’s been practicing the sound of it. “It’s quite obvious that your boys, and my nephew, are not going to let this girl be. I had been hoping that with enough scaring, you would all change your minds but obviously that didn’t work.”
He has to stop to choose his words. He looks as if the words taste bitter on his tongue. As if they are venom to him.
“So, if you are planning to turn this human into a shifter and bring her into your pack and your family, then there is only one choice for me to make. I either lose my brother forever, or I make peace with it. I already feel like I’ve lost you for more time than we should have let things come between us. I’m ready to absolve that separation and return to being brothers.”
But as much as Lydia’s hand reaches for Romulus, how she pleads with him in her eyes … he ignores her.
Remus holds out his hand for Romulus to take. The low undertone of growling from his pack starts up again, but after Remus whips his head around to glare at them with his deep, black, alpha eyes, they all fall into submission behind their pack leader and remain silent.
When Remus turns back around to face Romulus, I want to say something to tell Romulus not to fall for whatever it is that Remus is plotting. Surely, he can see through it. Surely, he knows this is all a ruse.
That even if we have peace today, it won’t last.
But Romulus is lost. Maybe he’s grown sentimental now, thanks to me. Or maybe he’s just always had a soft spot for his long-lost brother … because he takes his brother’s hand to shake and a new peace is reached, one that I don’t believe to be real.
The tension in the air lightens slightly as Remus’ pack loosens and some of the pack members walk closer to the platform where the ceremony will take place to watch. Rory, Marlowe, and Kaleb relax their postures in accordance with their father’s lead, but they still remain close to me as the other pack filters into the gardens.
“I don’t like this,” I whisper to Kaleb.
“I don’t either,” he whispers back.
He takes my hand and the four of us walk toward the platform to begin the ceremony. A pair of eyes in the crowd catches my attention.
It’s her, that girl that wanted to kill me in the forest; the girl that was promised to Rory once. She glares at me with a still-fuming hatred in her eyes. Not only doesn’t she want to see a human be turned, but she doesn’t want to see me married to the man she was promised.